What does RIDDOR mean?
RIDDOR means the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations. In UK health and safety law, it refers to the responsibility that employers and self-employed individuals have to report and record certain serious workplace accidents, diseases, near misses and close calls.
RIDDOR ensures that the relevant bodies, such as the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and local authority, are informed, so risks can be identified and investigated to prevent recurrence.
What is the purpose of RIDDOR?
In simple terms, the purpose of RIDDOR is to make sure that serious workplace incidents, occupational diseases, and dangerous occurrences are reported to the relevant enforcing authorities.
By collecting this information, authorities such as the HSE can identify workplace hazards, investigate serious incidents where needed, and take action to help prevent similar events from happening again. For employers, RIDDOR also supports better health and safety management by highlighting risks that need to be reviewed, controlled, or eliminated.
Ultimately, RIDDOR exists to help make workplaces safer by ensuring that significant risks are recorded, understood and acted upon.
What should be reported under RIDDOR?
Under RIDDOR, employers and other responsible persons have a legal duty to report certain serious workplace incidents, injuries, diseases, and dangerous occurrences.
Not every workplace accident needs to be reported. A RIDDOR report is only required when the incident is work-related and results in a reportable outcome, such as a death, specified injury, occupational disease, over-7-day injury, injury to a non-worker, or a dangerous occurrence.
Reportable incidents under RIDDOR include:
Work-related deaths
The death of any person must be reported if it results from a work-related accident. This includes delayed fatalities. For example, if someone suffers a reportable work-related injury and later dies from that injury within one year, it must be reported as a work-related fatality.
Specified injuries to workers
Employers must report certain serious injuries to workers, including fractures, amputations, injuries likely to cause permanent loss or reduction of sight, crush injuries to the head or torso, serious burns, scalping requiring hospital treatment, loss of consciousness caused by head injury or asphyxia, and injuries arising from working in an enclosed space that lead to hypothermia, heat-induced illness, resuscitation or hospital admittance for more than 24 hours.
Over-7-day injuries
A work-related injury must also be reported if it prevents a worker from carrying out their normal duties for more than seven consecutive days. This seven-day period does not include the day of the accident, but it does include weekends and rest days.
Injuries to non-workers
Non-fatal injuries to people who are not at work, such as customers, visitors or volunteers, must be reported if the incident is connected to work activity and the person is taken directly from the scene to the hospital for treatment.
Occupational diseases
Certain occupational diseases must be reported when they are likely to have been caused or made worse by work. Examples include conditions such as carpal tunnel syndrome, occupational dermatitis, hand-arm vibration syndrome, occupational asthma, and tendonitis of the hand or forearm.
Dangerous occurrences
Some near misses and close calls must also be reported, even if no one was injured. These are known as dangerous occurrences and include certain incidents that arise out of, or in connection with, work and have the potential to cause harm, such as the release of biological agents or serious electrical incidents.
RIDDOR reports are required even if there has been no clear breach of health and safety law, or if no one has been found to be at fault.
For more detailed guidance on what should be reported, employers should refer to the latest HSE RIDDOR guidance.
What is the responsibility of employers under RIDDOR?
Employers, or ‘responsible persons’, are required by law to report incidents according to RIDDOR. This covers self-employed individuals. Employers can fill out an online form to file a report, or they can call the HSE.
In addition, your organisation might consider using digital Incident Reporting Software to log all incidents, accidents, and near misses.
Intuitive Safety Intelligence Dashboards can also enable your organisation to track the number of RIDDOR reportable incidents over any time period.
What is the responsibility of employees under RIDDOR?
While employees have a legal duty to comply with health and safety procedures, they also have responsibilities when it comes to recording and reporting accidents. If an employee witnesses an accident or dangerous incident but is not injured themselves, they should report it to their employer or a designated member of management as soon as possible.
While employees don’t have a legal responsibility under RIDDOR, encouraging proactive reporting is a key part of maintaining a positive workplace safety culture.
When must a RIDDOR report be submitted?
RIDDOR reports should be submitted as soon as possible after a reportable incident occurs. Prompt reporting helps the relevant enforcing authority understand what has happened, assess whether further investigation is needed, and support action to prevent similar incidents from happening again.
In general, the reporting timescales are:
- Fatalities, specified injuries, injuries to non-workers requiring hospital treatment, and dangerous occurrences should be reported without delay. The report must usually be received within 10 days of the incident.
- Over-7-day injuries, where a worker is unable to carry out their normal duties for more than 7 consecutive days, must be reported within 15 days of the incident.
- Occupational diseases should be reported as soon as the responsible person receives a confirmed diagnosis that the condition is work-related.
Employers and other responsible persons should always check the latest HSE guidance to confirm which reporting route and timescale applies.
What happens if you report a RIDDOR late?
If you don’t report an incident within the correct timeframe, you leave yourself open to legal action. Non-reporting can result in fines or even imprisonment in the most serious of cases. More broadly, failure to report an accident on time could mean that opportunities for hazard reduction or changes to safety procedures are missed, risking the possibility of another incident happening.
How do you make a RIDDOR report?
RIDDOR reports must be submitted to the HSE by the responsible person, such as an employer, self-employed person, or someone in control of the work premises.
In most cases, the easiest way to make a RIDDOR report is by using the appropriate online form on the HSE website. The form you use will depend on the type of incident being reported, such as a workplace injury, occupational disease, dangerous occurrence, or injury to a member of the public.
For fatal accidents or accidents resulting in specified injuries to workers, reports can also be made by phone by calling the HSE Incident Contact Centre on 0345 300 9923.
Before making a report, it is helpful to have the following information ready:
- The date and time of the incident
- The location where the incident happened
- Personal details of the person or people injured or affected
- A brief description of what happened and the resulting injury, disease or dangerous occurrence
- Your contact information and company details
Keeping accurate records of workplace incidents can make the reporting process quicker and help ensure that the correct information is submitted.
How can Notify help you monitor RIDDOR?
Keeping on top of your RIDDOR reportable incidents is key to HSE compliance. Notify’s comprehensive health and safety software makes it quick and easy for your frontline workers to report all safety incidents – including RIDDOR reportable incidents – in your workplace. We can help users identify occurrences that match the RIDDOR reporting criteria, making it easier to recognise reportable events.
With Notify’s interactive safety intelligence dashboards, you can quickly get an overview of how many RIDDOR-reportable incidents have occurred in a certain timeframe. You can check your Accident Frequency Rate and compare data to determine if your safety initiatives have lowered the rate. You can also track the volume of incidents by department or location to determine hot spots and to prioritise improvement initiatives.
Our document management module also serves as a central repository for incident investigation information, which will be required when completing the RIDDOR form on the HSE website.
With our digital tools, you can take a deeper dive into your reporting statistics. You can see how many days have been lost to incidents (lost time incidents) or how your proactive steps have made positive changes to your workplace’s health and safety.
Read how Menzies Distribution Solutions used Notify and achieved a 40% reduction in RIDDOR incidents.
To find out more about how Notify can help you proactively comply with RIDDOR, start your free trial today.
RIDDOR guidance can change, so always check the latest HSE guidance when making a formal report.
FAQs
RIDDOR reports should be submitted by the responsible person. This is usually the employer, but it can also be a self-employed person or someone in control of the work premises where the incident happened.
In most cases, the injured person should not submit a RIDDOR report about themselves. Instead, the person or organisation responsible for managing the work activity, workplace, or premises should make the report to the HSE.
Under RIDDOR, a dangerous occurrence is a serious near miss or close call that had the potential to cause major injury or death, even if no one was actually harmed.
Examples of dangerous occurrences can include incidents such as lifting equipment collapsing, electrical equipment or tools causing a fire, the accidental release of hazardous substances, or the collapse of a structure on a worksite.
Dangerous occurrences must be reported when they meet the specific criteria set out by RIDDOR. If you are unsure whether an incident is reportable, it is always best to check the latest HSE guidance.
Examples of incidents that may need to be reported under RIDDOR include work-related fatalities, specified major injuries, over-7-day injuries, certain occupational diseases, and dangerous occurrences.
For example, a RIDDOR report may be required if:
- A worker dies as a result of a work-related incident
- An employee suffers a specified injury, such as a fracture, amputation, crush injury, serious burn, or loss of consciousness
- A worker is unable to carry out their normal duties for more than seven consecutive days after a workplace accident
- An employee develops an occupational disease linked to their work, such as hand-arm vibration syndrome from using vibrating tools, or occupational asthma from inhaling chemical fumes
- A dangerous occurrence or serious near miss takes place, such as a crane collapsing on a construction site
Not every accident or near miss is reportable under RIDDOR. The incident must meet specific reporting criteria, so employers should always check the latest HSE guidance if they are unsure.